The annual Penny Harvest campaign in city public schools will go forward this year, despite an alleged funding dispute among Common Cents, its parent organization, and the city Department of Education.

"The plan is that we are moving forward with the program for the current school year," said Keith Hickman, program director for Common Cents. He said Penny Harvest materials, including coin bags and posters, have already been delivered to participating schools for the 2013-14 campaign.

Common Cents sponsors the Penny Harvest program in more than 700 city schools, including all but a handful of public elementary schools in District 31 here. The concept is deceptively simple: Schoolchildren are encouraged to bring their pennies and loose change to school over a period of several weeks. When the campaign comes to an end, Common Cents tallies the total for each school and returns it to the school for distribution to charitable organizations in the community.

A student-run committee in each school, the Penny Harvest Roundtable, convenes to determine how its school's money will be allocated.

Participating Staten Island schools raise an average of more than $2,000 per school per year through the campaign. Last year students at many of the schools opted to donate their Penny Harvest money to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

But the whole program could be in jeopardy over funding, according to a published report.

According to a report in The New York Times, Common Cents is involved in a funding dispute with the DOE to the tune of some $200,000. The non-profit claims the DOE owes the money, based on a verbal agreement it made with the department, and claims to have a recording of the conversation to back its claim, according to the report. The DOE says it has nothing in writing and therefore can't authorize payment.

Neither side would comment on the report, but teachers in Staten Island schools said they were confident the penny program would not shut down.

'MAKING PLANS'

"We're making plans for our Penny Harvest campaign right now," said Jeanne Raleigh, a fourth-grade teacher at PS 19, West Brighton. Each year, she works with a group of fourth- and fifth-graders called the "PS 19 Young Helpers," who coordinate the penny drive. "We already have all the materials we need from Common Cents," she said.

Last year PS 19, a Title I school that receives federal poverty funds, raised more than $2,400 through its Penny Harvest campaign. The children decided to donate most of the money to help Staten Island families who had been displaced by Hurricane Sandy. In past years, PS 19 students have donated a portion of their penny haul to the neonatal ICU unit at Richmond University Medical Center to help premature newborns; to the Staten Island Zoo for its Children's Zoo exhibits, and to the Seamen's Society for Children and Families to fund scholarships for foster children.

Ms. Raleigh said that even if the organization failed to get financial support from the DOE, she was confident it would continue to receive funding from private sources. According to its annual report, the non-profit receives funding from several major foundations, including the Ford Foundation, the Foundation for Jewish Community, and JPMorgan Chase.

Cliff Hagen, a teacher at Laurie Intermediate School, New Springville, who helps students there coordinate the Penny Harvest campaign each year, said his school likely could not conduct the program on its own. "We couldn't do it without the support of Common Cents," he said. "They supply us with the materials to get the campaign off the ground, and the manpower to tally up what the kids collect."

Last year Laurie Intermediate had a visit from actress Emma Stone, who thanked students for their participation in Penny Harvest. The school raised more than $3,000.

According to its website, Common Cents was founded in 1991, born out of then-4-year-old Nora Gross' desire to feed a homeless man she saw on the street. After she asked her father, Teddy, who is now executive director of the non-profit, how she could help the homeless, the two came up with a plan to collect pennies.